Count Me In
by asdfjklicanteven
Summary: Percabeth... High School... Fame... Must I say more?


_I got your picture I'm coming with you. Dear Maria count me in._

Annabeth sat on a lone bench in Central Park reading one of her favorite books, Divergent. She had her earbuds in and was listening to this new band her best friend, Thalia, had recently become obsessed with.

_There's a story at the bottom of this_ bottle-

A football came hurtling at her and knocked her book out of her hands. Annoyed, she ripped her earbuds out of her ears and dropped down to pick up her book with the football resting awkwardly in the crook of her arm. She heard footsteps behind her.

As she was standing up a voice from behind her said, "So are you going to give me my ball back?" Annabeth looked up to see a tall figure looming over her. He looked like he was about 16. He had raven colored hair and sea green eyes. His ripped body and sixpack were obvious through his under armour tshirt. He gave her a lopsided grin. Annabeth would've thought he was cute if he hadn't just interrupted her reading on her favorite part of the book. He seemed cocky and arrogant. He painfully reminded her of Luke. Luke… That just made her even angrier.

He looked like he was going to say something cocky like, "You like what you see?", but at that moment he made the mistake of looking at her gray eyes, which were currently glaring at him. He shied away from whatever comment he was going to say. Annabeth was used to this reaction by now. People constantly reminded her of how intimidating her piercing gray eyes were. Whether it be from words or actions, they always did.

She thought of various ways she could yell at him, but hoped if she stayed silent he would go away. He sighed impatiently, as if telling her to hurry up.

She saw a blonde haired boy 20 yards away that looked like he was waiting on the raven haired boy. She took a step back a threw a perfect spiral into his arms. "Nice throw," said the raven haired boy. Annabeth stole a glance at his shirt and saw the name _Percy_ written at the top.

"You can leave now Percy. And more importantly, leave me alone," she said. He looked scared for a moment before he recollected himself. "How do you know my name?" he asked coolly. Annabeth could see through his act though and saw him panicking on the inside. She wondered why. "Your shirt. Why?" she asked suspiciously. "No reason," he replied, breathing a breath of relief. Ugh, seaweed brain, she thought.

Percy took a step towards the bench and picked up her Iphone. He looked at the screen. "The Demigods, huh?" he asked as if it amused him. "Uh, yeah. My best friend wanted me to listen to them. She said something about her baby brother, Jason, her cousins, I think she said their names were Nico and Peter, and their friend 'Valdez', as she calls him, are in it," Annabeth explained. She didn't know why she just told this stranger that. Thalia would be so mad if she knew.

"Peter?" ,Percy asked, looking slightly offended. "Yeah, I think his full name is Peter Johnson. I didn't really pay attention," she said. "I mean seriously. They're Just a bunch of stuck up rock stars who are going to disappear after their short 15 minutes of fame. They're wasting their lives with all this silly music stuff," said Annabeth, almost quoting her mothers exact words. Percy stared at her in disbelief. She probably sounded bitter, and a little bipolar.

She had never told anyone why she disliked music so much. When she was younger she wanted to be a singer. She taught herself how to play guitar and piano. She would write songs and perform them at school talent shows . She recorded all of the chords and lyrics to them in a big leather notebook. She only played the best of them publicly. People would clap, cheer, and compliment her, but she didn't care about that. All she wanted was for her mother to be proud of her. Her mom, Athena, never was.

When Annabeth was 7,she ran away from her dad's house. Back then she had lived with him, her stepmother, and her 2 evil half brothers. They would play pranks on Annabeth and when she would tell on them, her stepmom, Isabelle, would never believe her. She would never believe that her 'two little angels' would ever do something wrong. When she would ask to speak to her father, Isabelle would always say" Your dad is working on something important and should not be disturbed."

One night her brothers decided to pull a cruel prank involving spiders. They both knew Annabeth was scared to death by spiders. They weren't real spiders, just mechanical ones, but she was scared none the less and her brothers had the remote controls for them.

When Isabelle had finally gotten Annabeth to go to bed that night, they began the prank. As soon as the lights were turned off, they made thousands of tiny mechanical spiders crawl out from under everything in her room. She was terrified. She screamed for her dad, but he never came. Isabelle came instead. When footsteps sounded in the hallway though, the spiders retreated to their hiding places. When Isabelle would flick the lights on she would tell Annabeth to "Go to bed and stop screaming. You might wake up your brothers."

At dawn the next day, Annabeth couldn't take it anymore. She ran to her dad's room and cried into his shoulder and told him about every mean prank her brothers have ever pulled on her.

Isabelle was furious.

She ordered Annabeth to go take a shower and clean up before breakfast. Annabeth turned on the water, but didn't get in. She crept back down the hall to her father's bedroom and pressed her ear to the door. As she suspected, Isabelle was complaining about her. They weren't nice things to say about anyone, especially about a seven year old. The worst part was her dad agreeing with her. When they started discussing punishments for Annabeth, she made a decision .

That day when school ended, she didn't go home like she was supposed to. She had taken her life savings to school that day and used that to pay for a cab ride to the airport. When she was five, her mother had given her a round trip plane ticket, in case Annabeth ever wanted to go visit her in New York.

She got on the plane and flew the whole trip wide awake, worrying if her mother would send her back. She hoped not. When she got off the plane it was really late at night. She didn't have a place to stay and didn't know where her mother's office building was, so she climbed a tree in Central Park and stayed the night there.

She woke to the ground rushing towards her face. She screamed. Just as she was about to splatter, a pair of arms caught her, but only for a second. The minute they caught her, the person who owned them collapsed under her weight.

"God, did you catch her?", a girl screamed down from the tree Annabeth was in. "Of course, I'm not an idiot," said the boy under her. Annabeth quickly got up off of him.

She looked at the boy. He looked like he was about nine. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a scar on his face and she wondered what happened. He was really tall for a kid, about a head taller than Annabeth. She noticed his Maroon 5 t shirt, she had an identical one in her closet at her dad's house. Of course she wasn't allowed to wear it though. Isabelle thought they were inappropriate. Annabeth loved them.

She relaxed a little bit once she realized he wasn't a threat, just another kid playing in the park. She didn't know why he was alone though. The girl from the tree jumped down and walked towards Annabeth, hand out and ready to shake.

She looked to be around Annabeth's age. She had short, spiky black hair with a blue streak in it. Annabeth wondered what kind of parents would let their kid do that at such a young age. She was wearing all black. Annabeth didn't know how that girl could wear that in May.

The boy stood up as the girl said, " Hey, I'm Thalia and that's Luke." Annabeth hesitated before introducing herself. "Hello, I'm Annabeth," she said. "Cool name. Why were you sleeping in a tree?" asked Thalia. She didn't reply. "Oh, come on. We won't tell," said Luke.

"I ran away. I came to New York looking for my mom. She lives here. It was too late to go look for her when I got here, so I slept here," explained Annabeth. "YOU RAN AWAY? AWESOME! Oh, and we could help you find your mom if you'd like," said Thalia. "Thanks," said Annabeth. "Where does your mom work?" asked Luke. "Olympus Corporations ," she responded. " That's about ten minutes away," said Thalia. "Well then, lets go," said Luke. The three of them went to the building where Annabeth's mom worked and found her.

Annabeth got to stay in New York. She got in major trouble of course, but at least she didn't have to live with Isabelle. She ended up going to the same school as Thalia and Luke and they became best friends. She was right about their ages, so Luke was two grades above her Thalia. She played music until she was 12. That was the age Annabeth's mom, Athena, decided Annabeth should grow up and stop obsessing over music because, as her mom said, "You are going nowhere with this silly music business. It is doing nothing for you and you should start doing something useful with your precious life, like being a lawyer. You could study politics. So many things. Just not this. This needs to stop. From now on there will be no more music. Am I clear?" Of course Annabeth had said yes. She had then started studying to be a lawyer, like her mother wanted. When her friends asked why she stopped playing music, she would just say "Athena." They would drop the conversation after that. They had met her mom and knew how she was.

Annabeth never really gave up music though. She just didn't make her love for it public. She still had the notebook and still wrote lyrics in it. She didn't like rock stars. She was extremely jealous of them. That's why she was so bitter when Percy started talking about The Demigods. She was only listening to them to please Thalia.

"Well, I think you're wrong. Here's my number. If you ever want to do something fun, music wise, call me," said Percy. He gave her a little strip of paper with his name and number on it. With that he ran over to his friend and continued his game of catch.

Annabeth's phone rang. She looked at the caller I.D. It was Thalia. She answered. "So, have you listened to the whole album yet?" asked Thalia. "No. It's only been, like, 30 minutes since I downloaded it. That's not enough time to listen to a whole album consisting of 12 or more songs," replied Annabeth. " Plus that Peter Johnson guy's voice is giving me a headache," said Annabeth. "Hey that's my cousin you're talking about! There's no Peter Johnson in my brother's band. Do you mean Percy Jackson, my cousin?" asked Thalia. What?, thought Annabeth. She looked up at the park. She didn't see Percy or his friend anywhere. She checked the piece of paper he had given her. The name Percy Jackson was written on it . He was _Thalia's cousin_. He gave her _his number_. The worst part was _she sort of liked him. _She didn't know who he was so he thought he could legitimately go out with her. How sweet. How stupid. She was bound to find out. Yet, he did it anyways. She decided to give him a chance, right then and there. As long as Thalia didn't find out, she was in the clear.

"Hello, Earth to Annabeth?" said Thalia. " Um, I gotta go Thals. See you later," said Annabeth. She hung up before Thalia could respond. She dialed the number on the piece of paper Percy gave to her. After 3 rings he answered. "Hello?" a familiar voice said. "Hi, is this Percy?" asked Annabeth. " Who is this?" he responded. " Well you don't seem too confident now, now do you? You give a girl your number in Central Park and then you don't even properly greet her on the phone," said Annabeth jokingly. "Oh, Annabeth. Couldn't stay away, I see." said Percy. "Whatever you say. Meet me at this candy shop called Sweet on America in 10 minutes if you want to hang out. I'll be there with or without you," said Annabeth. She hung up on him before he could accept or decline. She then picked up her stuff and made her way to her favorite shop in New York, hoping her sort of second mother, Sally Blofis, was working today.


End file.
